LIVES could be at risk at a popular beauty spot because of a continuing dispute over parking.

LIVES could be at risk at a popular beauty spot because of a continuing dispute over parking.

Lifeboat crews in St Davids are increasingly concerned that they cannot get to their station during emergencies because of cars blocking their way.

The emergency workers have even been giving parking tickets by the police.

Clive Hays, deputy coxswain of St Davids lifeboat, was recently unable to get to the St Justinian's lifeboat station in Pembrokeshire during an emergency.

As a result the crew had to leave without him. Had the coxswain Malcom Greay not been on board the boat would have had to wait for his deputy, putting lives at risk due to the delay.

Now the RNLI has acted to try to resolve the long running access problems at the historic cove, which has led to crew members having to battle their way through traffic before they even set out to sea.

The situation at the Pembrokeshire cove has been so bad that the RNLI has put on hold its plans for a new lifeboat station until the situation is resolved.

In the meantime however, as a medium-term solution it intends to re-open a cliff top field, once used for public parking, for its lifeboat crews on call outs.

"I had a call out about two weeks ago and I missed the boat because I could not get down to the station," said second coxswain Clive Hays, yesterday.

"There was such a traffic jam that I was stuck on the road and I could not physically get there. If the coxswain had not been there they could not have taken the boat out and they would have had to sit there waiting for me.

"It is affecting call outs. Crew members are all anxious for something to be done."

St Davids coxswain and city council member Malcolm Gray said, "It's pretty chaotic down there.

"Touch wood we're managing at the moment but tempers have been frayed to say the least, especially when crew members were booked.

"The RNLI is trying to resolve the situation and we're hoping by next year it will be solved."

The controversy over parking at the historic cove began earlier this year following the rediscovery of an old covenant restricting a cliff top field, which had been used as a car park, to agricultural use only.

The temporary car park had been run by St Davids City Council for the last five years in an attempt to ease congestion on the narrow country road which leads to the cove and lifeboat station.

As well as lifeboat crew, who were allowed to park for free, it was also used by around 40,000 visitors a year, who parked their cars there before setting out on one of the many boat expeditions operating from the coves or to walk around the headland.

Known as Henry's Field after farmer Henry Griffiths, who once owned it, it was sold earlier this year to the RNLI for an estimated &#xA3;55,000.

However, as soon as the city council heard about the restrictive covenant it decided to stop running the car park. It took out the temporary toilets and handed the keys back to the RNLI.

The RNLI kept the field open over Easter and then locked its gate leaving those wanting to visit the cove with just two small areas along the road to park.

This summer a temporary solution was found when another farmer opened up a field further up the road to take cars. The move enabled boat companies to operate although there were still problems at peak times with turning traffic and the weight of numbers.

And it is not known whether this car park will be available next year.

A spokesman for the RNLI said yesterday that there had been an incident recently where a crew member had been unable to gain access to the site during an emergency.

As a result it had introduced a new system whereby as soon as an emergency call out is made the gate to Henry's Field would be opened allowing lifeboat crew members only to park there.

"This will prevent any further problem of this kind," he said. "At least they can get access in an emergency.

"We're still negotiating with the owner of the deeds of variation for Henry's land, which hopefully will lead to the covenant being altered so that we can make a proper access into the field.

"Once we have that we will have our plans in place, which are currently held in abeyance, for a new station at St Justinian's."